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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Article: Universal Music CEO: We're Not In This To Make Art

Sad perspective

Universal Music CEO: We're Not In This To Make Art | Techdirt
"Universal Music CEO: We're Not In This To Make Art from the of-course-not dept Whenever debates come up about disruptive innovation in the entertainment industry, the big record labels and big movie studios like to fall back on claiming that they (and often they alone) are the last vanguards protecting our culture. They talk about how, without greater copyright protections, their 'art' may die off. But, of course, as most normal people recognize, the labels and the studios (and the RIAA and MPAA who represent them) are not representing art at all, but commerce -- and just a specific type of commerce. They represent the gatekeeper model, which makes less and less sense in a digital world where we need filters and enablers, not gatekeepers. But it's pretty rare for them to actually admit that, since their entire public persona and lobbying efforts are based on 'we represent culture and art.'
And then, finally, an exec speaks the truth. In a quite interesting New Yorker profile of Scooter Braun, the man who made Justin Bieber into Justin Bieber, Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group (the biggest of the record labels) explains why he named Braun the company's first technology 'entrepreneur in residence' by admitting that 'art' has nothing to do with Universal Music: The company likes hits, the fans like hits, and that's what he's there to do--make hits. We're not in the art business."
(Continued... Universal Music CEO: We're Not In This To Make Art | Techdirt)